How to Round Numbers in Excel Using the ROUND Function

There are times where rounding values to the nearest decimal or whole number should be used to improve the look and clarity of your Excel presentation. When you round numbers, you remove the least significant digits. This results in more presentable values with your preferred level of accuracy.

Rounding is often used to give estimates and to make numbers easier to work with. For example, if I want to calculate the percentage discount and I get a number such as 17.3587563, rounding it to one decimal place will give me 17.4%, which is more presentable. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to round numbers using the ROUND function.

Excel ROUND Function

The ROUND function is the most popular and the most commonly used Excel function for rounding numbers. This function rounds numbers to the nearest decimal based on your specified number of digits. If the next digit to the right is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, it rounds down. If the next digit to the right is 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9, it rounds up. So “7.82564” rounded to two decimal places would become “7.83”. Here’s how to use the Excel ROUND function.

1. Open an existing Excel workbook with raw numbers or create a new worksheet. Then create a new column just next to the values you want to round up or dowm and give it a name.

2. Click to highlight the cell where you want your rounded value to go.

3. Navigate to the main ribbon and click on the “Formulas” menu.

4. Under the Formula options, select and click the “Math & Trig” option as highlighted below.

The Formulas dropdown menu will open. Select the “ROUND” function in the menu options.

5. This will open up the function’s argument window where you’ll configure the function to your desired results. Enter the number you want to round in the “Number” field. The easiest way to do this is to enter the cell number to which you are referencing. In our case we’ll use B4 to specify the top cell in our values column.

Enter the number of digits to which the number should be rounded in the “Num_digits” field. This specifies the number of digits you want the resulting figure to have. For example, you can enter 2 to signify two decimal places.

If you want to round numbers to the nearest 10 or 100, insert a negative number in the “Number” field. Doing so will round the number to the right side of the decimal. For example, if you insert “-1” in the number field and you’re rounding a number, such as 427.13, the resulting figure would be 430.

6. Click “OK” for the number to appear in the “Results” column.

7. Now you’ll want to apply the formula to all the other cells. To do so, click on the bottom right corner and drag the formula down to the rest of the cells.

That’s it. You’ve just rounded all the numbers to your desired number of digits.

Using the ROUND syntax

Alternatively, you can use a function’s syntax which is a lot easier compared to the method above.

A function’s syntax refers to the formula breakdown of the function and includes the function’s name, bracket, and arguments. The arguments are the “Number” and the “Num_digits.”

The Syntax for the ROUND formula is:

=ROUND(number, num_digits)

where “Number” is the value to be rounded and “Num_digits” is the number of digits to which the number will be rounded.

To use the ROUND syntax formula, simply follow the steps below.

1. Select the cell where you want the results to go.

2. Move your cursor to the function’s bar, and click to activate it.

3. Type in the syntax for the ROUND formula. Here’s how it would appear in our case.

4. Press Enter and the rounded value will appear in the results column. You can then drag down the rounded figure for the formula to apply to the rest of the cells.

Wrapping Up

Rounding numbers is a great way to make your Excel worksheet neat and presentable. And since the Excel ROUND function follows the mathematical rules for rounding numbers, you get highly accurate results that are a better representation of the actual figures.